


Up off the floor and under your feet

by ineptshieldmaid



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Foot Fetish, Pepper Potts's Shoes, Shoe Kink, author went off into yuri on ice fandom and came back with a foot thing, tony stark is a human disaster
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-16
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-10-19 14:23:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10641681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ineptshieldmaid/pseuds/ineptshieldmaid
Summary: She’s wearing the most ridiculous and terrifying pair of heels he’d ever bought her. He bought them very early on, mostly to see if she really could walk in them. She can walk in them. She can walk all over entire boardrooms in them.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Trojie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trojie/gifts).



> Presented on the occasion of Trojie's birthday! <3 you.

Tony Stark worships the ground that Pepper Potts walks upon. It’s been true for longer than he’d care to admit. At first, if he thought about it at all, it was that she was by far the best PA he’d ever had - one of the few who could withstand his bullsit. 

She cleans up after his messes: finds excuses for late return on important documents; sends subordinates to meetings in his place; takes important contacts to lunch when he’s disappeared into the lab and won’t come out.

He tries to make it up to her: one thing he does sign, reliably, is her bonus check. It’s generous. He finds out her shoe size, and buys her Louboutins. She wears them - she wears all of them, carefully matched to her outfits. She stands in front of him wearing them and shoves piles of documents into his hands; drags him out of the lab by the scruff of the neck; points him in the direction of whichever suit he’s supposed to be wearing today; and draws the line at tying his ties for him.

‘You went to private school, I know you can tie your own ties,’ Pepper says, rolling her eyes at him. He thinks she might be amused, a little bit.

‘Yes ma’am,’ he says, and her mouth forms a thin, impatient line.

He buys her a new pair of shoes and doesn’t push the tie thing again, for at least a week.

* * *

When he makes her CEO it’s the smartest move he’s ever made. Pepper rises to the occasion like a jet in take-off. It’s beautiful. It almost gets her killed, later, but it’s beautiful while it happens.

Tony opens doors for her, encourages her to precede him into rooms, introduces her with a flourish. Madame CEO. My chief executive, Ms Potts. Ms Potts, ma’am.

Depending on the company, she inclines her head, or ignores him entirely, or shares a look with Romanoff that says they both have better things to do than indulge him. Tony wonders, at some point, if he’s getting it wrong. He tries to buy her a new pair of shoes, and for the first time, she rejects them.

‘You don’t buy your CEO shoes, Mr Stark,’ she says. Thin, impatient mouth.

‘I buy _you_ shoes,’ Tony says, weak.

‘Not any more, you don’t,’ she says.

‘Yes ma’am,’ Tony says. He throws in an exaggerated salute, because what else is he supposed to do. ‘Cash bonuses and expensive wines only Madame CEO, ma’am!’

* * *

When Pepper takes him to bed - he doesn’t kid himself about who’s taking whom, here. Also, it’s not his bed - Tony drops to his knees without her having to ask. She’s wearing the most ridiculous and terrifying pair of heels he’d ever bought her. He bought them very early on, mostly to see if she really could walk in them. She can walk in them. She can walk all over entire boardrooms in them.

He unbuckles the strap and slides his hand around the instep of the left one. Pepper looks down at him, one eyebrow raised, maybe a little confused, but lifts her foot so he can slide the shoe off. He repeats the proceeding with the right shoe. Then he finds himself just staring up at her, at her perfect outfit and her perfect face and her wonderful hair already tousled from having his hands in it.

Pepper shakes her head a little, looking down at him.

‘Get up off the floor,’ she says, ‘and kiss me.’

Tony smiles, utterly lost. ‘Yes ma’am,’ he says. Pepper’s mouth thins, and she shifts back from him a little bit.

‘Don’t,’ she says.

‘Don’t what?’

‘Make…’ she stops. ‘Just call me Pepper, okay?’

‘Of course, Pepper,’ he says, and stands up to kiss her.

* * *

Tony buys Pepper a lot of things that aren’t shoes. The giant rabbit was a particular low point. He says _Of course, Pepper_ a lot, and means it, except for the times when he can’t. Spend some time outside of the lab for once, Tony. At least try to pretend you care what happens to this company, Tony. Keep the robots out of the bedroom, Tony.

I’ll try, Pepper. I do care, Pepper. I can’t, Pepper.

* * *

The Malibu house is gone, and with it, most of Tony’s workshop and most of Pepper’s wardrobe. They move up to New York, which Pepper seems to find an advantage from a business point of view. Mostly she seems to find it an advantageous point to depart from, in her quest to fly to literally every airport in the world on business purposes.

‘This is my job,’ she says, exasperated.

‘I never did all this flying around!’ Tony says. Pepper rolls her eyes.

‘Other people did it for you,’ she points out. ‘Now I do it for you.’

While she’s gone - somewhere. Vietnam? Vienna? Veracruz? Vladivostok? - Tony buys her shoes. Quite a lot of shoes, really. When she gets back, she sits on the end of the bed and stares at them.

‘I know you said…’ Tony twists his hands together. ‘But this isn’t. I mean. The ones you had got destroyed with the house.’ 

Pepper’s lips don’t do that thin, impatient thing. She bites her lip instead, almost hesitant. ‘They did,’ she says. She seems to make some kind of decision, and extends the toes of one foot in his direction. ‘Well?’ It’s a shred of a smile, but it’s there. ‘Which ones first?’

Tony picks the impossible stilettos first. There’s not really any competition there. Pepper’s feet are bare, so he puts the shoes aside for a moment and fishes out a pair of elastic-topped stockings from one of her drawers. Pepper lets him slide them on, even though he has to pull the first one off and start again because he let it puddle too much around the ankle. He lingers to stroke his fingers across her skin for a few long moments, before he moves on to the shoes.

Pepper stops him there, puts one hand on his shoulder and looks down at the shoe in his hand.

‘You know this doesn’t… make up for everything, Tony.’

He nods. He _can’t_ make up for everything.

‘It never has,’ Pepper says. ‘All those times. When you were my boss.’

Tony’s fingers tighten, dig into the leather he’s holding. He nods.

‘I know,’ he says. ‘I know, Pepper.’ He looks down at the shoe. ‘I just wanted to…’

‘Do this?’ Pepper asks, and lifts her foot up. Tony traces one finger down the arch of it, and looks up at her. She’s _beautiful_. 

‘And this,’ he says, and kisses the top of her foot. The stocking is weirdly slippery under his lips. Pepper’s toes wriggle, just a little bit.

He straps on the shoe, and then the other one. Pepper extends her legs out in the air in front of her, admiring them. Tony’s caught between her calves.

‘Very nice,’ Pepper concedes. There’s a moment’s pause, hanging in the air between them, and then she plants the left shoe square on his chest. If he still had the arc reactor, the heel would have gone right into it. 

‘Take it off,’ Pepper says.

‘Oh.’ Tony doesn’t bother hiding his disappointment. There’s no point hiding anything from Pepper anymore.

Pepper smiles at him, reaches down to brush her fingers over his cheek. ‘The silver ones next, I think,’ she says, looking over his head to the rack of shoes behind him. Tony’s heart, which had been wilting, blooms like sudden spring.

‘Of course, Pepper,’ he says, and starts on the buckle of the stiletto. It doesn’t even make any sense, but he adds, ‘Always, Pepper.’ She keeps her hand on his shoulder, and her eyes on his face, while he slips off first one, then the other shoe.


End file.
